Lullaby for the Lost
by SparklyPinkLemonade
Summary: {Refurbished} Vexus isn't beat forever. She'll come back, this time with more tactics to break Jenny, crushing everything she loves. (Warning, some Canon X OC in here)


Jenny walked through the door of her home, tired and frustrated. "Mom, I'm home!" she called out.  
No response.  
"Mom?" Jenny called again as she went into the kitchen. On the fridge was a note:  
_Jenny: __  
__Went to the grocery store. See you when I get home.__  
__Love, __  
__Mom__  
_There was even a little heart next to 'Mom' for added emphasis on the love part.  
Jenny groaned and grabbed an oil can from the fridge, then proceeding to the couch to see if anything was on TV.  
"In the news today—Johnny, stop! You'll kill your—Oh, Aaron! I love y—and so, the rare Popolofogus Fish—And so I said, 'Wow, you're a nincompoo—'"  
"There is NOTHING on!" Jenny snapped to no one in particular. Taking a swig of her robo-friendly drink, she turned off the TV in disgust. "Guess I'll just do…something…" She thought for a moment. What do teens normally do besides party? "I know! I'll just go through Mom's old stuff in the attic!" She chuckled. Might not be the most devious thing ever, but it was entertainment, right?  
A loud knock resounded on the door before Brad and Tuck walked in. "Hey, Jen! We're coming in!" Brad grinned.  
"Well, you kind of already are in… Welcome?" Jenny shrugged.  
"Where ya goin', Jenny?" Tuck asked.  
"Attic. I'm gonna dig through my mom's old stuff."  
"But that's so boring!" Brad objected, walking up the stairs anyway.  
"It's that or flipping through channels," Jenny reminded him. "I'm guessing you already tried that at home."  
"Pfft, of course no—Yeah, okay. We did."  
Jenny just smiled and led them up the stairs, then more stairs… and even more.  
"How many… stairs does… your house have!?" Brad gasped, stopping to catch his breath.  
"Only forty-seven. Why?" Jenny responded.  
"Nev-Nevermind…"

-  
"Who knew your mom had such cool stuff?" Tuck smiled as he put on a pair of neon green sunglasses.  
Jenny laughed. "No kidding. Bell-bottoms? Gross!" She threw the old-fashioned pants aside.  
Brad was looking at a photo. But no laughter was coming from his mouth. In fact, he wasn't even smiling. "Hey, Jen… Check this out," he called.  
She came over and looked. As did Tuck.  
"Who are these people?" Jenny wondered aloud.  
Brad flipped the photo over. "It says, 'Me, Amber and Ella, 1999.'" He frowned. "I didn't think your mom even socialized, especially with kids."  
"Yeah, why is Mom's with them in the picture?" Jenny said. She took the photo out of Brad's hands. "Are there any more?"  
"Yeah. This whole box is full of their stuff." He held up a small bear. Its eyes were gone, and it had patches all over its felt form. "Cute."  
Tuck pulled out another photo. "Here's another one of those girls. It's from 2001." He read the title of the photo out loud. "'Fun at the beach! Amber and Ella's first sand castle.' Whoa, they were, like eight years old!"  
"Doubt it," Brad responded. "The last date I can find is 2002. It says 'Ella and Amber turn 6.'" He looked through more photos. "Yeah. They stop at 2002."  
"Wonder why," Jenny frowned.  
"X-J-Ni-Uhn!" called her mother. "Are you home?"  
"Yeah Mom!" Jenny replied. "C'mon, guys. Let's go ask her."

"There you are! And… Bradley and Tucker. What a surprise," she dryly exclaimed.  
"Mom, I wanted to ask—"  
"I went and got you some more oil, and I have to do a circuit check on you soon."  
"Mom, this photo of—"  
"I have to get that old rat trap out of the attic at some point, it's starting to rust—"  
"MOM!" Jenny yelled, interrupting her mother's rant. "I have a question!"  
"Oh, alright dear. What is it?" Mrs. Wakeman smiled.  
"This photo I found in an old box… Who are these people?" Jenny showed her the photo.  
Mrs. Wakeman snatched it out of her hands, looking at it deeply.  
"Mom? Is everything oka—"  
"Where did you get this?" Mrs. Wakeman asked, shaking.  
"Uh, the attic? There was this whole box of photos of those girls…"  
"X-J9, You are no longer allowed near that box! Do I make myself clear!?"  
"I just wanted to know who they were!"  
"DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!?" Mrs. Wakeman bellowed, tears streaming from her eyes.  
"Okay… I won't go near it…" Jenny defensively replied, holding up her hands.  
Mrs. Wakeman just walked off, holding the photo closely.  
"Great. Now their names'll haunt me for the longest time," Brad muttered.

"Mom?" Jenny gently said, peering into her mother's bedroom.  
"What." Her voice was hoarse.  
"….Everything okay?"  
"Fine. Just fine."  
Jenny went over to her, sitting next to her on the bed. "Mom… Who were those girls?"  
Mrs. Wakeman sighed deeply, taking off her glasses to rub her eyes. "XJ-9, I believe I should tell you about the past." She put her glasses back on and stood, walking to the door. "Come along."  
Jenny hastily obeyed, following her mother up to the attic, up to that box of photographs.  
Pulling out a photo of her holding the twins, Mrs. Wakeman gave a weary smile. "Amber and Ella Wakeman. Born July 17th, 1995."  
"Amber and Ella… Wakeman?" Jenny asked in confusion.  
"Yes. I gave birth to them." She pulled out another photo. "Ah, their first Christmas."  
"Mom, you actually had kids?" Jenny asked impatiently.  
"Yes, I did. How do you think I got the title of Mrs.?" She chuckled. "Allan Wakeman married me in 1985. We adopted the girls eleven years later."  
"Eleven—"  
"XJ-9, hush. What I really wanted to tell you was the day I lost the two girls."

11 Years Ago  
"Ella Marie Wakeman! Do not go running off like that!" Nora angrily scolded her adopted daughter.  
"But Mommy, I was just with—"  
"I know who you were with." Nora clicked her tongue impatiently. "That ridiculous Carbunkle boy. Lord knows how much trouble he gets into."  
"He isn't ridiculous!" Ella protested. "We were just looking at the prizes at one of the b—"  
"I don't care!" Nora snapped. "Run off like that again and you get to sit in the car for the rest of the time!"  
Ella looked at the ground, defeated. "Yes, Mommy."  
Nora clasped harder at Amber's hand, slightly glad that the younger child was a little more delicate. "Let's go find your Aunt Wysteria."  
Amber smiled cheerfully. "Yay!"  
Ella miserably trailed after them, wanting nothing more than to run around with 'That Carbunkle Boy.' She hated how much her mother disliked him. He never did anything wrong.  
"Ella!" a voice called out.  
Ella stole a quick glance at her mother before running over to her friend. "Brad, I'm gonna get in trouble again."  
"No, ya won't. 'Cause I'm gonna walk with you." He smiled and took her hand. "Why did you get in trouble?"  
"I went with you without asking."  
"Ella!" Nora called out. "Come along!"  
Ella looked at Brad with a frustrated expression.  
"I'm not doing anything," Brad defensively told her. "I'm just walking with you."  
She nodded thoughtfully. "True, I guess."  
Up ahead, Nora was rambling to no one in particular. "I swear, one of these days she'll get hurt trying to be like Bradley. He's a reckless little daredevil. I can't trust my daughter with him."  
"Momma," Amber tried to say.  
"He always shows up with bandages all over him. Scratched and bruised. He never knows when to stop!"  
"Momma…"  
"And now Ella runs off with him in the middle of a State Fair. They could have gotten hurt, or worse, and I can't stand him being around even now!"  
"Momma!" Amber exasperatedly tugged on her sleeve.  
"Yes, dearest?" Nora asked, switching to a cheerful mood within milliseconds.  
"Brad isn't a bad kid," she quietly inputted.  
Nora looked at her. "Sweetheart, he's a danger-loving child. You and Ella are good, delicate little girls. I don't want you to get hurt."  
"But Momma, Ella's so happy when she's with him," Amber gently chided. "I know that Brad does stupid stuff, but he's just havin' fun. Ella just wants fun, too."  
Nora was silent. As she opened her mouth to speak, she was interrupted by a scream.  
People began to run past them in frenzy. Screaming, shoving, grabbing, hiding…  
The cause was a humongous behemoth of metal. The beast was scrappy and horribly put-together, but the whole appearance was eerie and rather horrifying. A large, barbwire cage was in the center of its chest and another resided on its leg.  
"Ella!" Nora cried, yanking Amber behind her to grab her other daughter.  
But before she could, a large robotic arm swept through the mob, scattering people in all directions. The force of people pushing and pulling at her forced Nora to let go of Amber's hand.  
"Amber!" she yelled, trying to push against the crowd.  
"MOMMY!" Ella screeched. Nora looked up to see her older daughter being thrown into a cage in the robot giant's chest.  
"MOMMA!" Amber also bellowed, reaching her arm out from the cage on the robot's leg.  
The behemoth began to walk away. Nora screamed out as she began to chase after it.  
Skyway Patrol was already on the move, but Nora knew they'd be helpless. All of that paperwork… Besides, no damage to the robot could be done without damage to the prisoners in the cages.  
As she continued to run, she saw something clinging to the back of the chest cage. "Wait a secon—BRADLEY!?"  
Brad was gripping on the barbwire of the cage, blood trickling down his arms. "Don't… worry, Cindy! I'll… get… you outta there…!" he grunted, pulling on the bars with all of his might.  
Ella was sobbing uncontrollably. "I wanna get outta here! I wanna go home!"  
"I'll save you! I promise!" Brad managed to smile. The wire was cutting deeply into his hands. "I'll save you—"  
The robot smacked him away as if he were merely a bug. Brad screamed as he fell, farther and farther.  
"BRAAAAAAAAD!" Ella screamed.  
A portal opened up in the air. The robot simply stepped through—  
And the portal closed.  
"AMBER! ELLA!" Nora bellowed.  
"Nora!" hollered Mr. Carbunkle. "Where is he!?"  
Nora only stuttered as she clung to his sleeves.  
"Where is Brad!?" he yelled, shaking her a bit.  
She finally stammered, "I-I-I d-don't kn-kn-know!"  
Mr. Carbunkle gave an odd cry, like that of a hurt animal. He ran in the direction of where the robot had been going. Suddenly, he screamed, "MEDICS! I NEED MEDICS!"  
Nora forced herself to stand and follow the crowd of people to where he was. It was at the edge of a ravine. A deep one.  
A Skyway Patrolman came over. "Sir, what's the proble—"  
"MY SON IS DOWN THERE! HE'S NOT MOVING! GET SOMEONE DOWN THERE!"  
"Sir, we have all units trying to fig—"  
"GET SOMEONE! NOW!"  
But Nora had already begun to climb down there. "Screw retirement," she muttered numbly.  
She got to the bottom within minutes. She walked over to Brad, being careful as not to step in the fast-moving water. Even though it was only a little higher above her ankles, it was still a swift enough current to take her away.  
She kneeled down and gently looked Brad over. There was a deep cut on the bottom of his head, with a dark bruise forming around it. Gingerly turning him over, she saw a similar gash in his forehead, bleeding quite a bit and bruising as well. She picked him up. "I need a lift!" she called up.  
A helicopter came in sight, hovering over the ravine. It lowered a ladder. Grasping it tightly, she gave it a tug. "Pull us up!"

Present Day  
"Bradley was in Intensive Care for three weeks," Mrs. Wakeman sadly informed Jenny. "When he woke up from that coma, he didn't remember anything. Nothing from before waking in the hospital." She sighed. "The first seven years of his life… blank…"  
Jenny sat in stunned silence. "That robot…" she finally managed to whisper.  
"Vexus sent it. Do you remember ever seeing it in Cluster Prime?"  
"Now that you mention it… I had asked Vega about it, but she said she'd never seen them in action… in fact, she didn't even know what it was for." Jenny shuddered.  
"I wasn't surprised that Bradley didn't remember anything. Well… Actually, I was thinking that it might jog his memory. But it's been buried so deep…" She shook her head. "His father hid all of the photos of Ella. All of them."  
"But… Why?" Jenny asked. "Wouldn't he want Brad to remember?"  
"XJ-9, how horrified and scarred do you think Bradley would be if his father had him remember everything up until her capture?" Mrs. Wakeman snapped. "He would never forgive himself for breaking a promise, childish as it may seem!"

Brad lay in bed, hands behind his head. He glance at his clock. "2:56. And still no sleep," he sighed wearily. He knew exactly why.  
The name and face of Ella was in his head. It was driving him insane. He had this feeling like he should've known who she was. She was familiar. But how…why…  
"Ugh," he groaned, burying his face under a pillow. Just trying to figure it out gave him a headache.


End file.
